PHILADELPHIA -- The next win the Phillies collect will match their total from a year ago, an impressive mark to hit in mid-August for any club, despite where it started. And at this time last year, perhaps they could've found moral victories in losses like Tuesday's 2-1 defeat to the Red Sox, where the Phillies battled baseball's best team in front of 33,081 at Citizens Bank Park.
But this is not last year. The Phillies are contenders and, ahead of schedule or not, will need to win games like Tuesday's if they are to continue to contend for the National League East. That much was clear by the time Tommy Hunter, shortly after surrendering a game-winning home run to Brock Holt, inquired about how the Braves were faring. When informed Atlanta was on its way to a 10-6 win over the Marlins, which pushed the Phillies two games back in the National League East, Hunter was blunt.
"Well," Hunter said, "that sucks."

The sentiment stuck not only because the Phillies sunk to 2-5 over their last seven games, but how they did so. Holt's pinch-hit solo shot in the eighth spoiled one of the best starts of the year from Nick Pivetta, who spent the night swapping scoreless frames with Rick Porcello. It also sent the Phillies to their second 2-1 loss to the Red Sox in three matchups, though they've held baseball's most potent offense to just five runs total in those contests.
"We know we can go toe to toe with this team," manager Gabe Kapler said. "We showed that we could at Fenway Park, we did it tonight. They came out on the losing end because they played a better baseball game. We're very confident that tomorrow we're going to be playing the better baseball game."

To do so, Kapler knows he'll need to kick-start an offense that's lagged behind the rest of his upstart club for most of the summer. He juggled his lineup considerably Tuesday in hopes of doing so, sliding Rhys Hoskins into the cleanup spot in place of Carlos Santana, and inserting Asdrubal Cabrera and Nick Williams in new spots at the top of the order. But the new alignment produced just one hit besides Hoskins' solo homer off Porcello in the fifth. The Phillies are hitting .208 with a .288 on-base percentage in August.
"When a guy like Porcello, who has a ball that can go both ways, you have to respect that the ball might go in on your hands or go back over the plate. He pitched a great game," Kapler said. "Pivetta certainly matched him."

Pivetta held Boston to just a Sandy Leon solo homer over six innings, striking out six against one walk. But Porcello was even more dominant, taking a perfect game into the fifth and striking out 10 over seven frames. Their duel gave Citizens Bank Park what Pivetta called "an amazing intensity," which lasted until the final out. The Phillies managed to inch the tying run to second off Craig Kimbrel, before the All-Star closer struck out Cabrera to notch his 36th save.
"Two pretty good teams going toe-to-toe, that's the way you like it though," said Hunter, who surrendered his first homer since July 12. "Throw blows and see who comes out on top."
Said Pivetta: "It's fun pitching in those games against those kinds of teams. … I don't know what the playoffs feel like. I'll know when we get there."
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MOMENTS THAT MATTERED
The Phillies' lone chance with a runner in scoring position came in the ninth, when pinch-runner Scott Kingery -- after multiple false starts -- swiped second off Kimbrel with two outs. Kingery tried twice to reach second early in the inning, but both times he had to retreat on foul balls. Kimbrel then retired Cesar Hernandez (flyout) and Williams (lineout) before whiffing Cabrera on a ball in the dirt, which briefly scurried away from Leon, offering the Phillies a glimpse of last-second hope. But Leon corralled the ball and tossed to first to retire Cabrera and end the game.

"You don't give away a strike against Craig Kimbrel," Kapler said, when asked if he'd prefered his hitters to give Kingery a chance to get into scoring position. "That's why you have Scotty stealing, because you don't expect to get back to back hits. It's hard to hit the ball out of the ballpark. You want a runner on second base as soon as possible."
SOUND SMART
Of Hoskins' 23 home runs this season, 17 have either tied a game or given the Phillies a lead. He now has the most home runs by a Phillie to tie a game or give the team a lead in a season since 2009, when Ryan Howard hit 24 such home runs.
HE SAID IT
"We come out and we play baseball to the best of our ability every day. I'm going to come out tomorrow and throw the exact same pitches that I threw tonight. That's the difference between us and fans and us and writers. We have to do this every single day. I'm not going to give a different effort because it's the Red Sox or the Yankees or the A's. I'm going to give you what I have every single night and let that lay how it will." -- Hunter
UP NEXT
The Phillies conclude their abbreviated two-game set with the Red Sox on Wednesday, when Vince Velasquez (8-9, 3.98 ERA) and Nathan Eovaldi (5-4, 3.74 ERA) match up at Citizens Bank Park. Velasquez had a strong stretch snapped last time out, when he allowed four runs in four innings to the D-backs. The right-hander went 2-0 with a 0.98 ERA over his three starts prior. He'll look to set a new career-high in wins when play begins at 7:05 p.m. ET.